MANY people in Kidderminster reading your article (Shuttle front page March 17) may not know what palliative care is. Even fewer will know, without personal experience like myself and others, that in the absence of hospice beds at Kemp, this ward is offering a very high standard of end-of-life care.

It would be a tragic loss for local people, when the nearest hospice beds are St Richards at Worcester and Mary Stevens at Stourbridge.

Many people will not know that the excellent care hospices offer is one requiring a specially trained multidisciplinary team in a particular environment, which a busy acute unit like Worcester is not equipped to provide. In practice, poor end-of-life care in acute units can considerably add to the stress patient and family are already facing.

My terminally ill sister was transferred from Worcester to the GP ward, and the care she received plus the support given to the family, completely transformed her last days. I speak from 30 years’ experience as a trained clinical nurse and manager in the NHS, primarily in psychiatric nursing in hospitals and community.

I know high quality care when I see it and the GP unit gave us exactly that.Several hundred thousand people die in acute hospitals in the UK each year, resulting in much-avoidable pain and suffering, often with long-standing after effects. The closing of this ward will add to this trauma locally.Colin Blencowe SRN, RMN, (Retired Senior Nurse Manager)